Brewer is now exploring a run for re-election in 2014, but it is unclear if she is able to do so. As of September 2013, there is no definitive answer to whether or not Brewer is eligible to seek re-election under the state constitution's rules governing gubernatorial term limits.[1]

Before becoming governor, Brewer served as secretary of state from 2003 to 2009. As the Arizona Constitution does not make provision for the position of Lieutenant Governor, Brewer, as secretary of state, was the first in line to succeed Democratic Gov. Napolitano when she resigned to become United States Secretary of Homeland Security on January 20, 2009. Brewer is Arizona's fourth female governor and the third consecutive female governor of the state. In the 2010 midterm election, she won election to a full term as Arizona's chief executive.[2]

Long active in state politics, Brewer began her political career in 1982 when she was elected to the Arizona House of Representatives. Serving in that chamber until 1987, Brewer then joined the Arizona State Senate for the next ten years. In 1996, Brewer was elected the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors, serving as Chair in 1998 and 2001. She was next elected Arizona Secretary of State in 2002, where she served until being elevated to the governorship.[2]

An analysis of Republican governors by Nate Silver of the New York Times in April 2013 ranked Brewer as the 18th most conservative governor in the country.[3]

Biography

Brewer was born in Hollywood, California to Perry and Edna Drinkwine. Her father died of lung disease when she was eleven years old. Growing up, Brewer worked alongside her mother in a franchise dress shop her mother owned.

Brewer studied at Glendale Community College where she received a radiologist technician certificate. She moved to Arizona after marrying her husband, John.

Education

Radiologist Technician Certificate - Glendale Community College

Political career

Governor of Arizona (2009 - Present)

In January of 2009, former Gov. Napolitano was officially nominated by President Barack Obama to be his Secretary of Homeland Security. As secretary of state, Brewer was next in the line of succession. She became Governor of Arizona on January 20, 2009 and held her inaugural ceremony the next day. She subsequently won election to a full term as governor in 2010.

Judicial appointments

As governor, Brewer is responsible for appointing judges to Arizona state courts. In Arizona, the governor makes a judicial appointment after candidates are recommended by a judicial nominating commission. After the governor appoints a judge, she or he must run for retention at the appellate level or election at the trial court level in the next general election more than two years after taking office. For an up-to-date list of all of Brewer's appointees, see Judgepedia's page on her appointments.

Affordable Care Act ("Obamacare")

In March 2010, after the federal government enacted the Affordable Care Act, including a mandate that would require everyone in the country to purchase insurance, Brewer called a special session of the State Legislature in order to seek permission to sue the federal government on behalf of the state. Terry Goddard, then the DemocraticState Attorney General, had chosen not to join other states in filing suit against the federal government over health care reform, believing it had "little chance of prevailing," and Brewer decided she should intervene. It should be noted that, at the time, both Brewer and Goddard were candidates in the state's gubernatorial race - Goddard being the presumptive Democratic nominee as opposed to Brewer, who was facing a heavily competitive Republican primary contest. [4]

Medicaid Expansion

In June 2012, Supreme Court ruled to uphold the Affordable Care Act, commonly referred to as "Obamacare," and state officials such as Brewer who had long fought for its repeal were faced with the dilemma of how to proceed with the few options which had been left for them to decide, including whether to participate in the federally controlled Medicaid expansion and whether to setup a state-specific versus federal health-exchange program. Several of Brewer's Republican colleagues pledged to keep their states outside the sphere of medicaid expansion, in some cases to demonstrate their enduring commitment to opposing the law, or else because they mistrusted the federal government to honor its long term financial promises for the expansion. In her 2013 State of the State address, however, Brewer resolved this particular dilemma for Arizona by breaking ranks with the Republican party on the issue of Medicaid.[5] In addition to conceding the futility of continued opposition to Obamacare in the wake of the Supreme Court decision and Obama's re-election victory, Brewer discussed the considerable popular support for expanding patient eligibility: Arizona had already voted twice to require the state to provide free care for everyone up to the federal poverty line.[5] During her speech, Brewer appealed to the Republican-controlled legislature to consider the merits of letting the federal government help finance an expansion which seemed likely to occur in Arizona regardless. She also pointed to the economic and job saving potential of including Arizona in the federal expansion.[5] Despite embracing this feature of the Affordable Care Act, Brewer made it clear she would not settle for less federal funding than would be necessary to support the potential addition of 300,000 newly-eligible Arizonans to the Medicaid rolls, to "protect rural and safety-net hospitals from being pushed to the brink by growing their cost in caring for the uninsured."[6]

Anti-Medicaid expansion movement

Brewer's appeal to the state legislature in January 2013 to expand Arizona's Medicaid rolls under the auspices of Obamacare culminated in June with the successful passage of a law outlining a plan for implementation. Days later, a group that disapproved of Brewer's alignment with President Obama's health care overhaul, The United Republican Alliance of Principled Conservatives, filed a referendum to block the Medicaid Expansion law from taking effect, but the referendum failed to collect the required 86,405 valid signatures to land on the November 2014 ballot before the September 11, 2013 deadline. Now, opponents - including the 36 Republican members of the state legislature who voted against expansion - have turned to a lawsuit brought by the conservative Goldwater Institute as their chief alternative to blocking the law before it officially goes live Jan. 1, 2014, with eligible Arizonans beginning to enroll as early as Oct. 1.[7] The institute filed on the grounds that because the expansion would require participating hospitals to pay a set fee to the state to help compensate for future reductions in the federal subsidy, the law contains a tax and therefore its implementation under the control of the executive branch would violate the state law enforcing separation of powers.

While the imposition of such a fee is an authority granted to state agencies "over 80 times in the past five years," according to a Brewer spokesperson, critics insist that the fee's resemblance to a tax is too close for constitutional comfort, per Article 3, Section 22, the distribution of powers.[8] In that vein, the lawsuit challenges the constitutionality of the procedural metric by which the expansion was judged and obtained legislative approval. The suit argues that the Brewer administration deliberately misrepresented the hospital fee to circumvent the higher-approval thresholds required for tax authorization; Had the fee been introduced as a tax instead, a two-thirds vote from both chambers would have been called for in order for the expansion to pass muster.[9]

“If this bill is not stopped, a dangerous precedent will have been set that extends far beyond Medicaid expansion," stated one Goldwater Institute attorney, mirroring the mantras famously recited by those who had previously led the fight against the implementation of Obamacare- Brewer among them.[10]

Job creation ranking

In a June 2013 analysis by The Business Journals which ranked 45 of the country's 50 governors by their job creation record, Brewer was ranked number 29. The five governors omitted from the analysis all assumed office in 2013. The ranking was based on a comparison of the annual private sector growth rate in all 50 states using data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.[11][12]

Term limits

Brewer was originally appointed governor in 2009 and subsequently won election to a full term in 2010. Having occupied the office during two consecutive terms, she is barred from seeking re-election in 2014 under the state's rules governing term limits for executive officials.[13] However in late 2012, Brewer began discussing the possibility of running in 2014, which raised eyebrows as well as questions, particularly among the political media, about the merits of a potential legal challenge. Based on most interpretations of the state constitution, Brewer is ineligible to run for re-election, although Joe Kanefield, Brewer's former chief legal counsel, presented a counter argument to the Arizona Republic in November 2012 which seemed to have offered Brewer some encouragement. Kanefield asserted that the specific language of the term limit law -- "which shall include any part of a term served" -- was meant to prevent crafty politicians from resigning just short of their second term's expiration in order to stay in office; And since Brewer, short of "gaming the system,"[13] inherited the role automatically in 2009 per constitutional succession procedure, she ought to be able to run for re-election without violating the spirit of the law, he said.[14]

When asked about her potential third term bid and the accompanying term-limit hurdle in a November 2012 interview with the Arizona Republic, Brewer responded, "I haven't ruled it out, and I've been encouraged by people — legal scholars and other people — that it's probably something that I ought to pursue."[14] If she pursues the legal challenge, a majority vote by the Arizona Supreme Court would be required to enable her bid.[15] Brewer appointed three of the five total justices.[14]

Following the 2010 census, the commission drafted redistricting maps. The draft maps, for which there is a 30 day comment period that began October 11, 2011, leave open the possibility that Democrats could gain seats in Republican-controlled Arizona. On October 26, 2011, Gov. Brewer "began the impeachment process for removing members from the Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission by submitting a letter outlining her grievances to commission Chairwoman Colleen Mathis."[17]. Earlier in the month, Brewer called the draft maps "gerrymandering at its worst," and described the commission as "unaccountable" and said it "misused its authority."[17]

Elections

2014

Brewer is exploring a run for re-election in 2014. As of June 2013, there is no definitive answer to whether or not Brewer, who was originally appointed to the position in 2009 and has been elected one time since, in 2010, will be able to seek re-election under the Arizona constitution's rules governing gubernatorial term limits.[19]

2010

General

On November 2, 2010, Jan Brewer won re-election to the office of Governor of Arizona. She defeated Terry Goddard (D), Barry J. Hess (LBT), Larry Gist (Green) and various write-in challengers in the general election.

Campaign donors

Comprehensive donor information for Brewer is available dating back to 1996. Based on available campaign finance records, Brewer raised a total of $2,458,505 during that time period. This information was last updated on June 4, 2014.[21]

Jan Brewer's Campaign Contribution History

Year

Office

Result

Contributions

2012

Governor of Arizona

$0

2010

Governor of Arizona

$1,820,099

2008

Arizona Secretary of State

$0

2006

Arizona Secretary of State

$261,510

2004

Arizona Secretary of State

$-21,050

2002

Arizona Secretary of State

$370,989

1996

Arizona State Senate District 19

$26,957

Grand Total Raised

$2,458,505

Ballotpedia collects information on campaign donors for each year in which a candidate or incumbent is running for election. The following table offers a breakdown of Jan Brewer's donors each year.[22] Click [show] for more information.

Jan Brewer's Campaign Contributions

2010Governor of Arizona

2006Arizona Secretary of State

2002Arizona Secretary of State

Total Raised

$1,820,099

$261,510

$370,989

Total Raised by General Election Opponents

$1,826,740 (Dem.) $25,467 (Green) $5,615 {Lib).

$266,632 (Dem.)$2,306 (Lib.)

$258,593 (Dem.)$8,070 (Lib.)

Top 5 contributions

Public fund

$1,768,577

Public fund

$238,845

Public fund

$348,501

Russell D. Smoldon

$140

Sydney B. Knight

$220

Jan Brewer

$1,060

Troy A. Hoberg

$140

Jean M. McGrath

$120

Richard B. West

$310

Oscar Lizardi

$140

Gary Lederer

$120

Chuck Garner

$140

Laurie Lines

$140

Richard Bitner

$120

Janet Lynn Hauk

$110

Individuals

$51,110

$21,935

$21,275

Institutions

-

$315

-

In-state donations

$1,814,227

$261,055

$21,958

Out-of-state donations

$5,600

$580

$530

Personal

Brewer married her husband, John, and worked in Glendale, California before moving to his hometown of Phoenix, Arizona in 1970. They later moved to Glendale, Arizona where he became a successful chiropractor and found success in real estate. She gave birth to three sons, one of whom died in 2007.[23]

Recent news

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